ew that a boat had been
lowered and that there would be pursuit. And all the time they felt
that without effort on their part they were being borne rapidly along as
fast as any one could chase them; but they were in a boat familiar to
them, and furnished with oars and sails if they could only reach the
open water. Then a despondent feeling came over them as they realised
that they were surrounded by towering rocks, and as they crouched lower
they fully expected from moment to moment to hear a grinding sound, and
feel a sharp check as a plank was ripped out by some sharp granite fang,
and then hear once more the rippling of the water as it rushed into the
boat.

And this in the darkness; for the bright stars above and the
phosphorescent atoms with which the black waters were dotted did not
relieve the deep gloom produced by the overhanging cliffs.

"Hurt, Vince?" whispered Mike at last.

"Yes, ever so."

"Oh! Want a handkerchief to bind it up?" cried Mike, in horror.

"Well, it does bleed--feels wet--but it don't matter much."

"But it does," said Mike excitedly. "Where did it hit you?"

"On the shin; but it didn't hit me--I hit it."

"What! The bullet?"

"Go along! don't joke now. I came down against an oar. Oh, I see: you
thought he hit me when he fired."

"Of course."

"Pooh! he couldn't aim straight in the dark. I'm all right. But I say:
there's water in the boat. Not much, but I can hear it gurgling in.
Why, Mike," he cried excitedly, after a few moments' search, "here's a
little round hole close down by the keel. There, I've stopped it up
with a finger; it's where his bullet must have gone through. Got your
handkerchief?"

"Yes."

"Tear off a piece, to make a plug about twice as big as a physic-bottle
cork."

There was the sound of tearing, and then Mike handed the piece of
cotton, which was carefully thrust into the clean, round hole,
effectually plugging it; after which Vince proposed that they should
each take an oar.

"Can't row," said Mike shortly.

"No, but we may want to fend her off from a rock. Hullo! where are the
lanthorns now? I can't see either the lugger or the boat."

Mike looked back, but nothing was visible.

"We've come round some rock," said Vince. "We shall see them again
directly."

But the minutes glided on, and they saw no light--all was black around
as ever, but the loud, hissing gurgle of the water told that they were
being borne along by some furio